China has a lot of crazy laws, such as communism. But now China has amended its 1996 law protecting the rights and interests of the aged--which already requires TV shows to cover old people's lives, in essence legislating the permanent airing of Golden Girls--to allow elderly parents to sue their kids for not visiting enough.

Most people assume that only an authoritarian regime dealing with a rapid transition from an agrarian society to one where kids move to faraway metropolises would cling to Confucian ideals so forcefully. Those people are idiots who happen to know a lot about China. This law...